


Time Stands Still

by aluminum_heart



Series: Holding Onto You [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Gen, POV Second Person, nonverbal link
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 07:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6946297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aluminum_heart/pseuds/aluminum_heart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once Ganondorf has been defeated Zelda sends Link to the Temple of Time to seal the door to the Sacred Realm once more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Stands Still

**Author's Note:**

> i do not and never will own zelda

You already know where you are before you open your eyes. The air is too thick and still to be anywhere other than the Temple of Time. As the last glimmers of the crystal dissolve from around you, you breathe in deeply, tasting the centuries’ worth of dust that has lain here, waiting for the Hero of Time to arrive. You step off the platform in the antechamber and walk toward the pedestal in the back of the Temple. Your steps, though quiet and soft, echo loudly in the cavernous silence, almost as if the walls are only too eager to repeat the sounds of your movement, as if these are the first sounds heard inside this chamber since it was built millennia ago. 

Walking up each granite step toward the pedestal, you finally stop in front of it, looking down at the slot where Zelda instructed you to place the Master Sword. Slowly, you reach over your shoulder, your blind aim unerring, instinctive more than habit. Grasping the grip, you unsheathe the sword and point the blade straight up, hearing the metal sing softly as it leaves the scabbard. You bring your arm slowly forward, noting how the familiar weight feels more like an extension of your arm than anything else. Time seems to slow and you are hyperaware of each muscle in your arm and shoulder contracting and releasing until you are holding the sword straight in front of your chest in both hands, pommel down. You think you can see your reflection in the flat of the blade if you look hard enough, but for some reason the thought makes your mouth dry, so instead you turn the sword hand over hand until the blade is pointed down. 

It is only now that you pause. You stare at the small gold rhombus set in the bottom of the hilt until your vision tunnels, until you no longer see the sword but instead, strangely, the Deku Tree, his wise visage gazing serenely back at you. You see Mido, and all the Kokiri, laughing and playing, eternally children. You see Malon singing in the pasture at Lon Lon Ranch, Epona grazing beside her. You see Hylians and Gorons and Zora, all the people you helped, all the people you saved. You see the Sages: Rauru, with his bristling mustache and sparse white hair; Nabooru, winking mischievously and grinning her brilliant smile; Impa, impassive, her arms crossed, but giving you a small nod; Ruto, giggling behind her hand; Darunia, his arms outstretched and welcoming. You see Saria — and here your vision blurs as you wonder when you started crying. Her kind smile pierces through you and your heart aches, but before you can do more than blink the tears away furiously, she is replaced by Zelda. 

And the princess’s expression does nothing to stop your tears of grief, but rather encourages them, for how could this truly be the right thing to do if it causes her so much pain? You want nothing more than to leave this Temple and return to her side, to keep her from ever feeling such sorrow again, but your vision changes once more and you see Ganondorf sneering before you. His cold eyes and cynical smile mock your pain, and you grit your teeth and raise the sword high in both hands, ready to cleave him with one blow. The sunlight glints along the blade for one shining second, and then you bring your arms down and the blade plunges into Ganondorf’s chest and his eyes widen and —

And you are alone again, surrounded by nothing more than dusty sunbeams and silent stone, the Master Sword mounted in the pedestal once more. You unpeel aching and cramped fingers from the handle and slowly lower yourself to the ground, kneeling shakily in front of the sword in a sort of bow, your muffled sobs ringing in the stillness. Your final missive from the princess is complete. The Master Sword is laid to rest. Almost absently, you realize the blue magic of the Song of Time have already begun to spool itself around your frame, glimmering across your limbs and filling your body with its cool embrace, before fading away and leaving you behind in the body of a child once more. 

You rub too-small fists over your eyes, and stand, feeling the gracelessness of short legs stumble up to support you. Heaving a shuddering deep sigh, you look at your hands, feeling the weight of a thousand years pressing heavily upon your shoulders. You need fresh air and a long rest. You turn to leave the Temple but suddenly Navi flits out from under your cap. Without anything more than a soft chime to serve as a goodbye, she flutters up through the shafts of sunlight toward the window, through it, and out of sight. You stare for a long moment at the window, swallowing reflexively, until tears threaten to spill from your eyes again, this time from exhaustion. Or so you tell yourself. You’re trembling now, you realize belatedly, as you walk out the door, through the antechamber, and back into the sunlight. 

Your mind sinks into a tired stupor, your legs moving mechanically, carrying you toward an unknown destination. Anywhere but here, a small part of your mind decides. You walk for hours, or maybe years, past sights unseen and sounds unheard. Your eyes glaze over and if a monster appeared before you now, it would be able to kill you before you’d even thought to draw your sword — though to be completely honest, the small voice in your head judges, the Kokiri Sword is really more of a dagger, the small blade barely longer than your child-sized forearm.

You only break out of your mental fugue when you bark your shin on a boulder and the pain distracts you long enough for you to recognize the sun has set, and that you are in an unknown forest. You don’t really care enough to figure out specifically which forest, and you’re too tired to do anything about it even if you did care, so you use the last of your energy to climb a tree and nestle yourself securely in the branches. Closing your eyes, you fall asleep almost immediately. The last thought to cross your mind before you slip away into unconsciousness is the hope that you can find Navi again soon. Then your body relaxes and you sleep a deep, dreamless sleep, alone in the darkness of the forest.


End file.
